'Call the Midwife' Star Laura Main Says Season 15 Is on the Way

Call the Midwife Season 14 has concluded its early release on PBS Passport; however, it still has a couple more installments left on most PBS stations. Even so, fans can already get excited about Season 15. Series star Laura Main, who plays Nurse Shelagh on the series, told Telly Visions that she’s already had her first costume fitting for the next season and the crew is ready to head back to Poplar. 

“We’ll start filming Season 15 in a matter of weeks. We’re ahead of the game,” she said ahead of Season 14’s premiere. “I had a costume fitting this week, so it’s just pure excitement.” 

This is big news, as there was speculation that Call the Midwife Season 15 would arrive much later, so that series creator Heidi Thomas could work out a spinoff series. Said spinoff is coming and will be set much earlier, around the outbreak of World War II. However, it will wait its turn until after Season 15 airs. Moreover, Call the Midwife will also get a feature-length film set in the current 1970s, followed by Season 16, confirming Main’s implications that time will keep on slipping into the future. 

“Apart from the first series where you’re waiting for the episodes to come, we’ve always known that there’s been another series commission,” Main continued. “Every series, I put my glasses away at the end, and I’m not mourning it too much because I know I’ll get to see her again and all these lovely people that work on Call the Midwife.” 

The actress admitted that in the early days of making the show, it could be difficult to take half a year off from the character. A decade and a half in now, it's old hat to find her way back to Shelagh and immerse herself in the world of 1970s Poplar. 

"There’s a lot of history there. It’s just lovely to know that we will all be back together again, really quite soon. This is the moment where it gets exciting again, right in the run-up," she said.

No one could have expected that Call the Midwife would still be bringing fans to their television sets for fifteen years, but Main gave the credit to series creator and writer Heidi Thomas. Despite being a period piece, Main knows that Heidi's words bring people of all sorts together to see how the nurses and nuns of Nonnatus House will rise to the occasion in each episode. 

"It’s absolutely down to the writing. Heidi Thomas is such a marvelous writer, and she taps into a universal experience. Yes, it’s set in the East End in Poplar, but it’s the themes of these scenes," Main said. "It connects audiences around the world. It’s about family and love, and it’s really nice to see the good side of the thing and the challenges. It works on so many levels." 

Call the Midwife Season 14 continues Sundays at 8 p.m. ET on most PBS stations, the PBS app, and the PBS Masterpiece Prime Video Channel weekly through mid-May. The series has already been streaming as an early weekly release on PBS Passport for members, and all episodes will be available until the end of the month. As always, check your local listings. Call the Midwife Seasons 15 and 16 are officially confirmed, as are the new World War II-set prequel and a feature film.